Employee Performance

Prepare for performance reviews

November 1, 2009
With year-end performance reviews just around the corner, now’s a good time to build your personnel files for the task ahead.

Raise accountability for better performance

November 1, 2009
Raise accountability by asking “one year from now” questions.

Three goals for October

October 1, 2009
Educate employees with three questions … Conduct a targeted performance survey … Implement a mentor’s advice and evaluate results.

9 strategies for unleashing employees’ creativity

September 1, 2009
True or false: Employees are either creative or they’re not—creativity isn’t a skill you can teach. False. Managers can play a key role in creating an environment in which employees will want to look for new ideas. Share this article with your supervisors to help tap employee creativity.

Seek multiple ways to express admiration

July 1, 2009
You already know to praise more than you criticize. But there are subtler ways to convey your satisfaction with employees’ effort or performance.

Level with poor performers

July 1, 2009
When laggards repeatedly fail to meet minimal job expectations, putting them on probation will only get you so far.

Check your incentives to confirm they work

June 1, 2009
New managers often make a rookie mistake: They assume that what motivates them must also motivate their employees.

Myriad ways to motivate employees

May 1, 2009
Flipping through a recent edition of The New York Times, I spotted a full-page ad for Wells Fargo. Titled “The Value of Team Member Recognition,” the ad was a message from the bank’s chief executive.

Use transparency to assess team’s progress

May 1, 2009
To evaluate an individual, the process is straightforward. You run through a battery of criteria—reliability, accuracy, timeliness—and grade the person’s behavior and work product accordingly. Assessing team performance can prove trickier.

Ignore poor performers at your peril

April 1, 2009
In survey after survey, the top mistake managers admit to making is waiting too long to deal with underperformers. The urge to look the other way—or assume things will improve on their own—can prove too powerful to resist.